Jonah – The Reluctant Prophet
Jonah 3:8-10, 4:1-4
Rediscovering Jonah by Timothy Keller
A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament by Bruce, Birch, Walter Brueggemann, Terrence Fretheim, David Peterson
Jonah The Reluctant Prophet Monologue by Rabbi Brett Krichiver
Friends, I participated in a faith community press conference recently in the Indiana Statehouse to share our concerns to the Indiana Congress about how they draw voting districts. Our faith event included ministry leaders of many faith traditions and I was taken by something Brett Krichiver, Rabbi at the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation shared. He mentioned the story of the prophet Jonah as a sacred text read during Yom Kippur every year that focuses on repentance. Brett talked about Jonah as a fascinating character in the Old Testament who was afraid of God’s call and ran away because he didn’t want to be successful in his message of prophecy to the people of Ninevah. This was not what I remembered from this story as I always thought Jonah ran away and was swallowed by a fish because he knew how difficult the call was from God and didn’t want to face it and was afraid. So, this idea that Jonah ran because he was afraid of being successful intrigued me and I was interested in digging deeper to understand its message.
Most of you have heard the story of Jonah from Sunday School. How God told Jonah to go to the people of Ninevah and tell them to repent and turn towards God. Jonah doesn’t want to do this and instead gets on a ship with other sailors, and they experience a tremendous storm on the sea. The sailors have a meeting to figure out who on this ship is causing this storm and all eyes are on Jonah. They don’t know him, where he comes from or what God he serves. Jonah says he is a Hebrew and worships the Lord God. He knows his disobedience is the cause of the storm and he tells the sailors to throw him overboard. The sailors are scared to death of dying at the sea and yet they also don’t want the blood of an innocent man on their hands. They begin to franticly row to shore but the storm is too intense, and they make no progress. At this point they do throw Jonah overboard and then enter prayer and repentance to the Lord God (even though they were not Hebrews).
A whale swallows Jonah whole and he stays in the belly of the fish for 3 days. The fish then vomits Jonah onto dry land. God calls out again to Jonah to get up and go to Ninevah and speak repentence to the people. Jonah reluctantly makes the journey and declares Ninevah will be destroyed if they don’t repent. His prophecy is undoubtedly the most efficient prophecy on record, if we measure amount of behavior change based on the number of words spoken. Jonah’s prophecy, in Hebrew, is only five words long: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed.
Surprisingly all the people and the leaders and the King ask for repentance and turn to God. And God decides to spare Ninevah. Jonah is not happy about this decision and is mad at God and sits at the edge of town waiting to see what happens to the city. God made a bush to come over to shade Jonah and he was thankful to be out of the hot sun. But then God sent a worm that attacks the bush, and it withers and dies. Jonah just wants to die. God says to Jonah in the last verse of the book, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Ninevah, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand person who do not know their right hand from their left.”
To give some context to help us better understand this story, most scholars believe this book was written in the post-exile period (after 539 BCE). In the book A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament authors Bruce Birch, Walter Brueggemann, Terrence Fretheim and David Peterson agree with the description of post-exile period because the people of Yahweh could return to places they had been forced to leave earlier in the century. But the post exile period has never ended because the Jewish community had been spread out to many places after the Babylonian exile far outside of their original land. The diaspora of the community was far reaching. There were many questions they were asking themselves. Who are God’s people when they live in such disparate places? How should Israel organize itself to be Israel? Does Israel desire a King (or submit to the authorities in the places they live) or a Messiah, a spiritual leader to be anointed? Must they worship only Yaheweh as they lived among many communities with multiple Gods. Do they have to be born into the community or can they convert to it? The Jonah story appears within the context of this wrestling with identity in the Jewish community.
Jonah is a great example of satire, and the writer identifies Jonah as an anti-hero, a reluctant prophet, a prophet that did not follow God’s leadings, ran away from the call, became angry at God with the outcome and yet God still is able to use him.
The book of Jonah is very different than the other prophetic books which focused on repentance of Israel and Judah. Most of them had little success to turn the Hebrews away from their wickedness and back to their covenantal obligation to God. Jonah on the other hand is sent to the people of Ninevah, non-Hebrews, who were known to be evil and ruthless and enemies of Israel. He was able with few words to turn the entire community and leaders to God. What a contrast to see Jonah’s success with the people of Ninevah versus the other prophets and their failure to change the hearts and minds of the kings of Jerusalem.
In this book that bears his name, only Jonah is named, and only Jonah acts badly: the four other groups of characters—the captain, the sailors, the people of Nineveh, and their king—all seem to be eager to do the right thing. What kind of prophetic story is this?
This is a book about God’s justice and mercy and mystery. God would save the wicked city of Gentiles in Ninevah and yet allow the temple to be destroyed in Jerusalem. In the NRSV commentary it says, “ In this story we encounter a God who is indeed concerned about social justice but who, in the mystery of God’s ways, permits the sovereignty of the divine heart to overrule the requirements of divine justice.”
Jonah is such an unlikely prophet – most prophets offer insight, foresight, predictions, compassion and courage. Jonah does not encompass any of these characteristics. He also operates without energy and without initiative, he seems passive and willing to die when things don’t go his way. He sounds like someone we might call depressed today.
It also seems like Jonah’s faith is not as deep as his allegiance to his race and nationality. This story leaves us with so many more questions than answers. But it seems to speak at its deepest level that God is a God of mercy and compassion and embraces individuals and communities beyond what is comfortable with us. Some of these people and communities we don’t like, we don’t agree with, are different than we are, not part of our tribe, and we believe are evil. And God saves them!
Another twist to think about. If Jonah doesn’t want God’s covenant to extend beyond the Jewish community, why didn’t he pray to God to destroy the non-Jewish sailors on the boat and save himself? Jonah actually acts to prevent these gentiles from being drug into his quarrel with God. He tells them to throw him overboard because he knows he is the problem. Jesus references Jonah in Matthew 12:38-41 when scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign from Jesus. He says the sign given is from the prophet Jonah. Jesus connected the 3 days Jonah spent in the belly of the fish with the 3 days that the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth. And the people of Ninevah repented at the prophecy of Jonah and Jesus then tells the scribes and Pharisees that they are seeing something greater than Jonah in front of them. How interesting for Jesus to connect his ministry with that of Jonah, such a conflicted prophet.
I like what Tim Keller says in his book, Discovering Jonah, “Is this book about race and nationalism, since Jonah seems to be more concerned over his nation’s military security than over a city of spiritually lost people? Is it about God’s call to mission, since Jonah at first flees from the call and later goes but regrets it? Is it about the struggles believers have to obey and trust in God? Yes, to all of those – and more. A mountain of scholarship exists about the book of Jonah that reveals the richness of the story, the many layers of meaning, and the varied applicability of it to so much of human life and thought.” “The book of Jonah yields many insights about God’s love for societies and people beyond the community of believers; about God’s opposition to toxic nationalism and disdain for other races; and about how to be in mission in the world despite the subtle and unavoidable power of idolatry in our own lives and hearts.”
I want to close by reading a part of a monologue that Rabbi Brett gave several years ago taking on the role of this complex and multidimensional character Jonah,
At first, I ran. For the centuries that followed I have asked myself this single question – what was I running from? Did I honestly believe that God could not follow? Could not see? Did I imagine it was possible to hide? But I ran. Perhaps I ran to something more than I was running from God. Away from the Land of Israel, certainly, but towards the sea, towards freedom, justice? I don’t know what.
But I knew in that moment it was justice I sought. Not talk or sermons or explanations or riddles. I wanted cold, hard and deserved justice. The hatred swelled up inside of me like a stone, heavy and cold until I could not contain it.
Here’s the thing. Last night I had a strange dream. I dreamt the future. I saw that these Assyrians who rule Nineveh now,
will one day destroy my people and take the Temple. And God asks me to give those people the same chance of redemption that Israel would receive? Something inside me just broke. As a young man I tried to follow the commandments as best I could. I heard the passion of the prophets and I wished to be as strong and courageous and clear. I waited patiently when the day would come, I would be called myself, as the prophets of old were called, to fulfill my destiny and speak in God’s name.
So, when this dream came, I knew it was time. I knew that God would not let this terrible tragedy come upon God’s beloved people. I knew that Nineveh would be punished. Could it be, I thought, that I would have the great honor of saving my people by cursing the Ninevites?
“The word of God came to Jonah the son of Amittai and said, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgement upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me.”
I started to pack almost immediately. I knew this journey would be difficult, Nineveh is a very large city, the King not known for treating guests politely. I would likely be captured, even tortured. These are not Israelites, I reminded myself. They do not have the same, special relationship with God, the same ritual of Teshuvah, I doubted they would even be smart enough to hear God’s word if I shouted it at them.
But something stopped me suddenly. My half-packed bag dropped from my hand. Suspicion grew in my head and suddenly I grew dizzy. If God wanted to destroy a city, certainly he would not send a prophet at all. I know the Torah; I have studied it my entire life. I remember the tale of Abraham and his cousin Lot. I know that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and stopped only to inform Abraham of his Divine plan. There was no announcement, no way for them to escape justice. Only Lot in his righteousness was spared. And even then, they had to sneak him out moments before Judgement Day arrived.
Why would God give these non-Chosen, temple destroying, Assyrians even a moment’s notice before wiping them off the earth? And why must I be there when it happens? Something just didn’t add up, and before I knew it, my bag still only half-packed, my feet took me away from Nineveh, away from Jerusalem, away from my homeland and God’s special chosen place, running towards the sea, running away from God.
Sometime along the way these words formed in my head, “I will not stand by and watch Jerusalem’s captors kneel and bow down before my God. I will not offer them a chance to repent and be forgiven. I will protect my people. I will show God that He can’t just go around forgiving everyone. I will remind God that there is true evil in the world, and it deserves to be punished. This is the justice I demand of God; I deserve that much!”
Friends, as we enter a time of unprogrammed worship, I ask you to consider this story and your place in the narrative.
Are we like the Ninevites, ready to listen to God’s word and change our ways?
Or are we like Jonah, demanding justice for others even as we plead for mercy for ourselves.
What prophecy is God calling to you today?